Sexton was one of the stars of the Lions series victory against Australia four years ago, but it was only when Farrell came on as his replacement that the Lions finally edged in front.
He was hesitant, missing his first penalty, then hit a punt out on the full and his distribution was well best his best. Laidlaw also struggled, missing the tackle that led to the Barbarians' try and taking too much time in his service.
By contrast, Bryn Gatland, the son of the Lions head coach, created havoc in the Lions defensive line with an astute kicking game and his performance may well earn him a Super Rugby contract with the Auckland Blues.
Jetlag factor
Lions captain Sam Warburton has refused to use the jetlag factor as an excuse, but it is clear that the 36-hour journey, from London via Melbourne, because of sponsorship commitments, affected the players' performance on Saturday.
Having only landed in Auckland on Wednesday afternoon, the squad were unable to train properly until Friday, because of the jetlag protocol, and many of the players and coaching staff have struggled to sleep in the three nights before the opening game.
"If I'm honest, the last three days have been really tough," said Ben Te'o, the England centre, who was one of the few players to advance his claims for a test spot with an impressive display.
"Waking up at one in the morning, some guys getting one or two hours' sleep - boys really really tired before training, before games.
"But we've got to push through and over the next few days, it's going to get a lot easier. The guys playing on Wednesday will probably be feeling a lot better than the guys playing [on Saturday]."
Warren Gatland, the British & Irish Lions coach, admitted the effects of the long-haul travel had been draining for some players.
"Not everyone's in the same position. Some people have recovered from that and other people, there are a number of players still seeing the doctor and a lot of the staff are as well, trying to see the doctor to get a sleeping pill to get some sleep," said Gatland.
"Andy Farrell went to the doctor last night to get a sleeping pill, went to bed at 11 or 12 o'clock, and was up at four o'clock on Saturday morning in the team room, because he couldn't get to sleep.
"So we've just got to try and recover, and adjust as quickly as possible. Hopefully in the next two days, we're going to get into a cycle where we're feeling fresh."
Barbarians attacking game
Criticism of the Lions' performance does not do justice to the ferocity and rapidity of the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians.
Clayton McMillan's squad may only have been together for a week, but the part-timers, who included among their number sheep-farmer, nurse, student, gardener, demonstrated the small margins between Super Rugby and the Mitre 10 Cup, with a display that rattled the Lions.
The New Zealand side only had a week together to prepare for the game, but critically, their focus was on their attacking game. Their codename was called "Pulling the trigger".
"It was one of our main focuses and we had put a lot of work into it during the week," said Dwayne Sweeney, who once played for Gatland when he was at the Waikato Chiefs.
"We had a few trick plays. We pulled one of them out down in our 22, when I hit the midfield, we went the same way, and I cut back with Bryn [Gatland] and put a cross-kick across our own 22.
"Didn't quite kick it far enough, so it didn't quite come off exactly how we wanted, but it was little things like that.
"It is a high-risk play, but we wanted to try things, and we had done all this work and didn't want to go into our shells. So for us 'pulling the trigger' was making sure that we did those things during the week.
"We didn't want to die wondering, I guess, so we adopted that attacking mindset."
Lack of ruthlessness in finishing by the Lions
For all the criticism of the Lions's opening performance, the result and, potentially, the performance was undermined by their inability to convert their possession into points, particularly in the first half.
The Lions, despite their lack of dominance, still managed to forge several try-scoring opportunities, but despite a dominant scrummage and a number of five-metre positions, failed to cross the line.
"We have a lot to work on," admitted Toby Faletau. "We created a lot of chances, but didn't finish them off.
"We'll take the result. We expected them to be up for it and that's exactly what we got."
"You've got to be frustrated with a few missed opportunities," said Te'o. "There were two or three tries left out there early on.
"This is a new team, a new bunch of guys that haven't been together long. Those are things we can work on.
"Execution maybe came down to a little bit of nerves. There is a lot of pressure out there on us and everyone is vying for spots.
"And, let's be honest, a little bit of fatigue ... a bit of concentration. A couple more [passes] stick, we score a couple more tries, maybe it's a different game, we grow in confidence, but that's not how it was."
